Relatives appeal for Darfuri youths recruited to fight in South Kordofan to return home

December 18 - 2013ZALINGEI

Relatives of young people recruited in Darfur to fight the rebels in South Kordofan have appealed to political party leaders, human rights organisations, the international community and the UN to immediately intervene and “save their children from the furnace of war,” a Koran scholar in Central Darfur told Radio Dabanga.

Sheikh Matar Younis Ali Hussein, Koran scholar at the Great Mosque in Zalingei, the capital of Central Darfur, and chairperson of the Young Rebels for Freedom and Democracy, said that between five to six thousand youths aged between 16 to 18, were recruited in Darfur by Sudanese Border Guards Commander Mohamed Hamdan, better known as Hemeti.

The recruits were transferred for training in military camps near Khartoum and Shendi, north of the Sudanese capital, and sent to fight the rebels in South Kordofan.

“The relatives of the young recruits are extremely worried about their fate”, the scholar said. “They completely reject their children being involved in those wars and asked me to reach them through Radio Dabanga and tell them to listen to the voice of reason and return home.”

Among the youth whose families called upon them to immediately return, the sheikh mentioned Yahya Eldin Gamar (16) from Warna, near Khor Ramla, Abdelrahim Azrag Abdelkarim (18) from Marla, near Nyala, Adam Mohamed (16) from Zalingei, Zakaria Dawoud (16) from Barakat, near Khor Ramla, and Hassan Abdallah Abdelkarim (18) from Konshi, near Zalingei.

The sheikh demanded from the Sudan Revolutionary Front in South Kordofan to release “those children” when they are captured and hand them over to the Red Cross delegation in Sudan.